Barter Creative

a screenshot from an indie game jam game, of a character standing inside a container, as a giant train stares at her from the sky, the train has glowing orange eyes, and the character is textured to look cellshaded and cartoony.

Just before i go back to working on my indie game for the next 2 years, have one of the cooler screenshots from our game jam game!
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indie #devlog #gameart #ue5 #digitalart #blender #conceptart #digitalart #indieart #gamer #artwork #concept #dev #art #gamejam #shader

I learned so so much that i am gonna roll into future dev projects, and yet i also feel like i found out i had so much more to learn! this was an incredible time! (Game available to play on itchio!)

I Like Trains - Oh not this much - BigModeGameJam - Trailer2026 YouTube video by BarterCreative

I finally finished the bug fixes for my game jam game, it was a great time working on this for the last month with some friends!

#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indie #devlog #gameart #ue5 #digitalart #blender #conceptart #digitalart #indieart #gamer #artwork #concept #dev #art #gamejam #shader

And then to get every vfx element to be within a luminance value of (0-1) I convert every element into log space right before running the expression. so that it'll always be between 0 and 1.

You can adjust it! so it starts off with a default (0-.3)(.3-.6)(.6-1) and then you can slide around those numbers so you can choose how much of the element you want to be highlights, or midtones, so you could have an object be 99% highlights, or only 2% of highlights on the super bright sections.

Here you can see it turned off. so the black 'cellshading' lines only get added on the interior of the VFX if you want.

Here for visualization, The right is luminance matte of the vfx, and the left picks any edge that separates luminance and makes it black. If its on the edge of the element though, you can toggle it to ignore this effect. since its not seperating two luminances anymore, but one luminance and nothing.

Flipbooking them!
I'm running the VFX element through an expression to split any element into 3 sections (Shadows/Mids/Highlights) then it constants all those 3 items into any color you want and adds a black edge in-between each divided section. This was the "Jump smoke" flipbook!

Working on a way to process 2d VFX elements into cellshaded textures so they can match the style of my game, tested it on a game jam!
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indie #devlog #gameart #ue5 #digitalart #blender #conceptart #digitalart #indieart #gamer #artwork #concept #dev #art #gamejam #shader

Poster we made for our game for the #bigmode2026 game jam! Was a fun time getting this game out in 10 days with our small team!
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indie #devlog #gameart #ue5 #digitalart #blender #conceptart #digitalart #indieart #gamer #artwork #concept #dev #art #gamejam #jam #gamejam

Still talking a bit of a break from my indie game to do a yearly game jam. Worked on some idle animation for a living train today.
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indie #devlog #gameart #ue5 #digitalart #blender #conceptart #digitalart #indieart #gamer #artwork #concept #dev #art #gamejam #jam

Taking a break from my indiegame to do a game jam, starting to prep for it by remembering how to do things like this with the camera.
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indie #devlog #gameart #ue5 #digitalart #blender #conceptart #digitalart #indieart #gamer #artwork #concept #dev #art #gamejam #jam

Continuing to work on the storage in my indie game! Where the weapons now auto sort on the shelves so you can organize your weapons!
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indie #devlog #gameart #ue5 #digitalart #blender #conceptart #digitalart #indieart #gamer #art #procreate #artwork #concept #dev #art

Getting the guns, I modelled, set up to be on the shelf in my indie game. Still have to make 20 more, but got a good chunk complete!
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indie #devlog #gameart #ue5 #digitalart #blender #conceptart #digitalart #indieart #gamer #art #procreate #artwork #concept #dev #art

An opened and closed concept art of a box for a indie game, the box shows a forcefield that objects have to pass through to enter the box. It looks like its made of steel, but with a light blue hue added.

New Mini-verse storage concept art for my indie game, a container that can fit objects of any size, but stays light weight and easy to move!
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indie #devlog #gameart #ue5 #digitalart #blender #conceptart #digitalart #indieart #gamer #art #procreate #artwork #concept

My store in my indie game, you can now order items and they get dropped off by a drone in a box! Progress!
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamer #ui #ue5 #blender #independentdev #unrealengine #indieart #game #gamer #drone #code #userinterface #art #precreate #userinterface #dev

Continuing to make the store in my indie game get better and better! Still a LONG way to go, but its starting to get there!
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamer #ui #ue5 #blender #independentdev #unrealengine #indieart #game #gamer #drone #code #userinterface #art #precreate #userinterface #dev

Beginning to work on the store in my indie game as follows.
A. Store auto-populates
B. Some items don't unlock until certain conditions
C. The items get delivered via drone.
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamer #ui #ue5#blender #independentdev #unrealengine #indieart #game #gamer #drone #code

I finally have mocked up a concept art for my indie games store UI that I don't hate. Anyone else hate the UI part of Indie-Dev?
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamer #devlog #ui #ue5 #digitalart #blender #independentdev #unrealengine #indieart #gamer #3dart #art #code #UI #Design #interface

First test of ordering things at a kiosk and they get dropped off by a drone in my indie game! Not bad for an initial set-up!
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamer #devlog #ui #ue5 #digitalart #blender #independentdev #unrealengine #indieart #game #gamer #3dart #art #modelling #drone #code

Sometimes I get bored or doing indie game dev and try to redraw Victor from arcane to brush up on my art skills. Gonna post the timelapse in comment if anyone wants to see the process!
#arcane #victor #colortheory #art #artist #jayvik #netflix #gloriousevolution #artist #noai #digitalart #conceptart

Concept art of a delivery robot for my upcoming indie game 'Life at the End at Borts' The concept art shows an orb shaped robot with a claw attached to its base, and two thrusters on either side of it to help it fly. It has a soft futuristic white look to it, and his emotions seem very apathetic.

Meet Borb! When you order supplies in my indie game someone needs to deliver that supplies. Borb will deliver it with a lack of smile!
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indie #devlog #gameart #ue5 #digitalart #blender #conceptart #digitalart #indieart #gamer #art #procreate #artwork #robot #conceptart

A before and after concept art of a zombie for a indie game, the new is just a updated more thought out version of the old concept art.

A before and after concept art of a zombie for a indie game, the new is just a updated more thought out version of the old concept art.

I continue to work on concept art for my indie game while relaxing at night. Have two updated zombie concepts.
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indie #devlog #gameart #ue5 #digitalart #blender #conceptart #digitalart #indieart #gamer #3dart #art #procreate #digitalartist #artwork #robot #zombie #art

and by 1024x1023 I mean 1024x1024. oopsie

Using one texture to drive every single muzzle, tracer, and shell in every gun in my indie game. All in one 1024x1023 texture.
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamer #devlog #ui #ue5 #digitalart #blender #independentdev #unrealengine #indieart #game #gamer #3dart #art #modelling #zombie #code

It really is! Plus I feel like i've been working on the weapon mechanics for MONTHS, so it feels SO nice to briefly pivot to a brand new chunk of dev for a little bit.

Rocket launcher is working! This marks the end of the weapon coding for my indie game, on to refinement, and then the next task!
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamer #devlog #ui #ue5 #digitalart #blender #independentdev #unrealengine #indieart #game #gamer #3dart #art #modelling #zombie #code

Fine tuned the Melee and weapon switching code today, the mechanics in this game are finally starting to feel like a proper game!
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indiegamer #devlog #ui #ue5 #digitalart #blender #independentdev #unrealengine #indieart #game #gamer #3dart #art #modelling #zombie #code

oh i love this. was the gold hard to create?

Concept art of four robots each with a slightly different design. Each robot is the part of a fictional robot family in the indie game 'Life at the End at Bort' Each of them have a different design like speaking, grabbing, shooting, and showing. The robots have a white metallic futuristic sheen to them.

Finished all the concept art, for the bots in my indie game, today. Check out this incredibly poorly programmed bot family
#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #indie #devlog #gameart #ue5 #digitalart #blender #conceptart #digitalart #indieart #gamer #3dart #art #procreate #digitalartist #artwork #robot